Starting a bees colony

Beekeeping is a great hobby with sweet benefits. Whether you are purchasing bees the very first time, or you wish to expand your hive, you have various alternatives for beginning a bee colony.

Understand the People In Your Bee Colony

Initially, you must know towards different people in your bee colony. Bee colonies contains worker bees, drones and a queen. Whenever you purchase a package of bees, the queen is normally marked. For an in-depth check all of the people in your bee colony, go through our guide.

Purchase Bees

To start a bee colony, you’ll clearly require bees. It’s crucial you order bees early therefore you’re all set to bring them home in April or May. You’ll also need suitable beekeeping supplies. Find out about purchasing bees with our “Where to purchase Bees” article.

Utilize Swarm Traps & Bait Hives

You may also get feral bees using swarm traps, also referred to as bait hives or bait bins. The traps tend to be meant to seem like your apiary hives. The target is to get bees to start building honeycomb inside bait field. For a complete examine building and using swarm traps, read through our “Swarm Traps and Bait Hives” article.

Divide Your Existing Bee Colony

In the event that you currently have a very good colony, you'll divide it up generate an additional beehive. Dividing your bees will help stop the colony from swarming, and gives you a moment origin for honey and beeswax. Bees must certanly be split in the early spring, before the very first significant flow of nectar. To ascertain in case the colony is powerful adequate to be divided, check for a lot of capped brood–six structures of capped brood is an excellent place to begin. Once you understand your bees tend to be powerful adequate, you’ll need an extra beehive to home them.

The new colony need its very own queen. The easiest way is always to simply order a queen bee, in place of increasing a queen. Once you've the latest queen, you’ll must transfer bees from your own present colony into the brand new hive. Take three frames of capped brood from the hive–and all the bees that include it–and put them in the exact middle of your beehive. Insert the new queen’s framework between your brood structures, with all the candy part up.